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Kansas would have fewer school districts under new proposal

Kansas would have fewer than half of the local school districts it now has under a reorganization that a conservative Republican lawmaker proposed Wednesday because he said it would trim administrative costs.

Rep. John Bradford said his measure would decrease the number of local school districts to 132 from the current 286 and leave 99 of the state’s 105 counties with only one district each. Bradford presented his plan to the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, which agreed to sponsor it as a bill.

Several other Republican lawmakers said they’re interested in finding ways to have local school districts operate more efficiently. The GOP-dominated Legislature must close a projected $190 million budget deficit for the fiscal year beginning in July, and the state expects to spend more than $4 billion on aid to its public schools.

Bradford was careful to describe his plan as a district reorganization, not a consolidation. The state forced hundreds of small school districts to consolidate in the 1960s and for many educators and legislators, the term still carries negative connotations of closing individual schools, which Bradford said he doesn’t advocate.

But Rep. Don Hineman, a Republican from Dighton in western Kansas, said he’s skeptical that reducing the number of districts will result in significant cost savings. Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said he sees no evidence that Kansas residents are clamoring for consolidation.

“This is really going in the wrong direction,” Tallman said. “This is making the false assumption that larger bureaucratic units that are less accessible to voters are better.”

A consulting firm hired by the Legislature to find potential budget efficiencies last week recommended that districts have statewide purchasing of food, fuel, services and computer software. It also recommended having all public school employees in a single health insurance plan to lower coverage costs.

Bradford’s proposal is designed to cut administrative positions, sell off unnecessary equipment, and close and sell off administrative buildings. Bradford said that based on a survey of districts, he believes the state could save about $170 million over 10 years.

“There are some savings, I think, that could happen,” said Sen. Tom Arpke, a conservative Salina Republican who is chairman of a budget subcommittee on education spending. “Let’s have the discussion at least.”

Under his proposal, any county with 10,000 or fewer public school students could have only a single district. Counties with more than 10,000 students could have multiple districts, but each would have to have more than 1,500 students.

Half of the state’s 286 districts have 550 or fewer students, and 69 of them have fewer than 300.

Bradford said he’d leave it to each county to decide whether multiple elected local school boards would remain if there were fewer or only one district.

Rep. Ed Trimmer, a Winfield Democrat on the House Education Committee, said he doesn’t think schools can run smoothly if a single superintendent in a county reports to multiple school boards. He said he believes cutting the number of districts eventually would lead to school closures.

“The only way you can get efficiency is by consolidating is if you move students and close schools,” Trimmer said. “You have to do that, or there’s no point in doing what you do.”